How can I ship luggage to USA from Barcelona?
 

My wife and I will be taking a transatlantic cruise to Barcelona in May and want to ship our luggage home to the USA from there. We want to spend a week touring Germany with light backpacks and without heavy luggage. Do you know how we might ship the luggage home, ie., UPS, ??? Thank you. :confused:

UPS, DHL, FedEx any other will do this. :cool:
Your company may have a contract with one of them ....
BTW, Barcelona is NOT in Germany :D

Also any airline will ship it as air cargo. But it is expensive and requires a customs broker at the US end. Much cheaper to store it in Europe and pick it up for your flight home. Depends on the weight of your luggage but it is likely to be USD 500-1000 for shipping it unaccompanied (or more than your airline ticket).

UPS will pick up your bags at your location in Spain and deliver them to your house in the USA. This is not a cheap service...I think I remember about €350 for 50kgs or so. The phone number for UPS in Spain is 902 888 820. If your Spanish is not good, I believe you can book a pickup/delivery on UPS.com.

Also check postage rates.

This is a good idea if it is not too expensive to ship. I know that a few years ago it was possible to ship from USA to France via a boat using the US Postal Service. At least I think it came on a boat, maybe it came with Lance Armstrong's bikes ;)

From France however the rates were high using la Poste because the only option was air freight. Rate was about 5x higher and I only had a few pounds to ship (winter jacket, etc).

If your Spanish is good, you might want to try shipping from there (before your trip to Germany) or looking on the Spanish Post office website. Alternatively if your German is better, maybe you can fit the luggage on the plane or train over to Germany and then ship it when you arrive in Germany using the German postal service before you go on your trip.

In general the postal services should have the better rates. As to which is more expensive Spain, Germany or France I don't have a clue.. Also you might want to ask how long the transit will take..

bon voyage!

@:-)

Just a thought, How about calling the cruise company for a shipping rate. I don't know if it is possible, but maybe they could add it to your tab..

If you just don't want to carry it around with you while you're touring, you can leave it with a luggage service (Airport, train stations, etc). Shipping them back otherwise is SO very expensive.